Fanart, Fanfiction and Fangirling

I sort of disappeared for a while. I replied to a few job offers abroad, I'm not holding my breath, but who knows. Sales started yesterday, so I went and bought something nice for myself, which doesn't happen often. I wish I could buy new sandals too, but they're all either completely flat or ridiculously high-heeled. Oh, well, maybe next summer.

Is any of you watching "Crossing lines"? It's an American-European co-production that takes place all over Europe. I started watching it because it was created by the same person who created Criminal Minds and because it's broadcast pretty much at the same time in the USA and in Italy (I think Rai2 airs the episodes a week after NBC), so we don't have to wait 6+ months for once. What I've seen so far hasn't really blown my mind: it's like the took an American series and simply moved it to Europe. There is a lot of potential in the idea and I think the pilot showed that potential, but it still needs work. We'll see how things develop.

What made me laugh, though, is the description they have on the NBC website: «"Crossing Lines" is set in the world's most exotic locales [...]"» I laughed when I read this because the last episode was set in Udine, which we don't consider an exotic or glamorous location at all. I mean, it was convenient for the plot because it's close to the Slovenian border, but, as the Germans would say, it's pretty much "am Arsch der Welt" ("in the middle of nowhere"). Also, mass-shootings abound and that's something we usually consider "typically American". Maybe they are not so common in the US either, but we're so used to seeing people shooting left and right in American films and TV series that we think they're normal. Seeing them in a series that's set in Europe made me think "This is so completely unbelievable". I'm curious to know what Americans think of mass-shootings in films / TV series.

Uhm, I think my Sociology of Media background is showing. Sorry.

Anyway. My friends Deluded by Lesbians released a new video! It's a cover of an '80s classic, well, classic for Italians anyway: "Cicale", originally sung by Italian-American starlet Heather Parisi and opening of a popular TV show from 1981.

This is their version:



The video is them being idiots as usual. It's funny, but if you want to see a really hilarious video, watch their first video, "She do wanna", shot in the streets of Milan during Fashion Week in 2010:

The first official video of my friends "Deluded by Lesbians" is finally online! Have a look! (OMG I can see myself in the crowd towards the end. XD)



These are the guys I use to practise my "photography skills". I should really update my online portfolio now that I think about it...

For my German-speaking friends: Deluded by Lesbians CD review in German. Pretty damn good, I'd say! :)

I think it may be time for a proper update. First things first: I'm officially moving to Berlin on the 23rd of September! :D I booked my flight and enrolled for the Business German course, I'm going to start on the 28th. Sharing a flat with other students would've been more fun probably, but I'm not complaining: my room is luminous, quite big and only 5 minutes away from the U-Bahn station and the Volkspark Hesenheide, and the woman renting it is very nice (she even bought me an ice cream to "celebrate". :3) The only negative thing is that the flat is on the 5th floor. D: If I don't lose weight there, I never will!

I had a lot of fun while I was in Berlin WG-hunting last week: I watched "Maria, ihm schmeckt's nicht" (and was quite surprised to find out the cinema at Potsdamer Platz is actually cheaper than cinemas in Milan); I went to a couchsurfing barbecue with killer_ameise, where I was asked if I was given Gucci at birth, since I'm from Milan (WTF XD); I saw a beautiful rainbow; I visited my friends (and left a heavy coat and my combat boots at their place) and walked around till my feet were sore.

Tomorrow is going to be my last day at work. Ironically, the only thing I've been doing lately was translating technical stuff from English into German; I translated a whole SAP user manual! Hopefully I didn't make too many mistakes.

And tomorrow night there's another Deluded by Lesbians gig, we're organising a trip to see them, since it's in a city about an hour away from here. What will they do without their official photographer?! Mmh, I may try to organise a gig in Berlin for them... :P

DELUDED BY LESBIANS WON THE FLANDRIKA FESTIVAL!!! :D They did it! They fucking did it! The Belgian winners were La Femme Belge (there was an Italian winner and a Belgian winner) and the two bands won €3000 each! How fucking great is that? Considering they've been playing together for less than 2 years, I'd say that's pretty impressive!

Their concert was definitely the most entertaining of the night, apart from the usual dressing up (angel wings and wigs at the beginning, swimming suits and goggles at the end), they invited the guys from a few of the Belgian bands to get onstage with them for the last song, it was totally crazy. They may not be technically perfect, but they do know how to put up a great show. They remind me of the early Ärzte in a way.

We're going to celebrate tomorrow night, then the bass player is going to LA for a couple of weeks. Man, I'm totally exhausted. After the concerts we had to drive them to their rehearsal room because the drummer had lost his car keys and they couldn't fit all their instruments into just one car. Luckily someone found the keys and gave them to one of the security guys, too bad the guy had already gone away. Whatever, it was totally worth it.

I remembered three four more funny moments from the concert in Montreux:

1) Bela jumping down from his drumkit, running to Farin, drinking his tea, thanking him and running back to his place. :D

2) Farin singing "Mana mana" with the audience. XD

3) Nico and someone from the crew doing a little dance at the side of the stage during a song. XD

4) Farin talking about fans who throw bras on stage (Bela had just got a bra and a pair of knickers and asked the girl who had thrown them to please join them on stage) and saying "Yeah, nowadays it's just 'Oh, I'm going to throw my bra on stage!'" and mimicked getting something out of his pocket and throwing it. Poor Farin, he misses the good old days when girls threw the bras they were actually wearing... :P

Man, I still grin like an idiot when I think back of the concert. Speaking of concerts, Deluded by Lesbians are playing in Milan tonight, hopefully I'll be able to take decent photos this time, the ones I took at their last concert came out way too dark. But they're going to play outdoors before 9:00 PM, so that shouldn't be a problem. It's good to have musicians friends I can use as my photographic guinea pigs. And they absolutely LOVE my photos, so... ;)

OMGWTF moment #1: Watched Star Trek last night. I LOVED IT!!! I was with Vica, who is a fellow Trekkie, and her boyfriend, who hasn't seen a single episode of any series. XD I was geeky enough to recognise the characters before they were introduced (thanks mum for making me watch the classic series when I was a kid) and catch the "Enterprise" reference (as in, "Enterprise" the series, not the name of the spaceship), even if I only ever watched a few episodes. Also, I love Spock and I think Zachary Quinto did an excellent job. :3

OMGWTF moment #2: Bloody hell. This morning my father put a thermometer in the sun. Temperature: 42°C! :O And we're still in MAY! Thank God it's not humid, otherwise I'd die. Actually, when I went out this morning it was like being at the seaside, because of the dry air and light breeze. If the weather remained like this it would be perfect, but it always gets awfully sultry in June/July/August. D:

OMGWTF moment #3: Is it just me being blind until now, or did Bela get a new tattoo? More specifically the shark from the "Jaws" poster image on his right wrist? See photo evidence below:

( Jaws? )

All right, now I can go back to editing the photos I took at my friends' gig. The theme of the gig was "Spring", so they printed a life-sized Venus from the Botticelli painting (but pasted the face of the bassist on it) and played the first song wearing blond wigs. They opened the concert reading the Italian translation of Bananarama's "Venus" (and I was the only one in the audience who got it, WTF) and closed it with "Enter Venus": the lyrics from the above mentioned "Venus" sung on the music from Metallica's "Enter Sandman". They are crazy. XD

Last night's concert was BRILLIANT. It was the first real concert my friends played and they were quite nervous (I think only the drummer had already played concerts before, because he also plays in another band), but they did great. And their outfits were amazing:

http://pics.livejournal.com/gothikmaus/gallery/0001x7py

Two other bands played as well, Filthy Generation, which I quite liked (even if after a while their songs started to sound all the same -but the singer was hot, with his half-shaved head and long, long black dreadlocks), and Loud 9, but most of the audience was there too see Deluded by lesbians and went positively crazy when they came out on stage.

Also, I mentioned making a killer banner, didn't I?



The guys are playing in Bari tomorrow and on Sunday, I'm sure they're going to kick ass!

Funny moment of the night: after the concert we went to congratulate them and the bassist told me "I wanted your knickers!" WTF?! XD I told him I'm going to throw a bra on stage at their next concert. ;)